Establishing the Disease and Genetic Risk Prediction Score of Cognitive Impairment to Early Prevent the Threat of Dementia

Background and Objective Gradual loss of cognitive function is the main characteristics of dementia-related neurodegenerative disease. Aging population worldwide is facing the threat of dementia, especially in Taiwan which aged persons (>65 years old) is 12% of the total population in 2014. At present, the pathogenic mechanisms of dementia-related neurodegenerative disease is not clear and there is no effective drug to cure the disease. Thus it is an important issue for public to concern that how to early prevent cognitive impairment. Previous studies demonstrate that iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is associated with cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative disease. Therefore the objectives of this study are 1) to investigate the disease prediction risk factors between IDA and dementia-related neurodegenerative disease; 2) to explore the genetic risk factor for IDA and dementia-related neurodegenerative disease; 3) to validate the above disease and genetic risk factors in the community-based cohort and to develop the risk prediction score model of cognitive impairment for Taiwan population. Materials and Methods The study will 1) investigate the association between IDA and dementia-related neurodegenerative disease and discover the disease prediction risk factors using National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD); 2) explore the candidate genes for IDA and dementia-related neurodegenerative disease using Taiwan Biobank database and try to develop the risk prediction score model for cognitive impairment using regression method; 3) follow-up the community-based healthy cohort which we established during 2003-2004 and validate the prediction model. Finally we will develop the risk prediction score model of cognitive impairment for Taiwan population. Expected results Through our effort, we expect that the disease and genetic risk prediction score model can apply to early prevent the threat of dementia in growing aging population in Taiwan.